A short note on Bauchi politics

Many a times, observers of political developments in Bauchi State from outside are impressed by the complexity of its politics and the sophistication of its voters. However moving close, the political complexity and voters sophistication soon disappear and one is left with lots of disappointments courtesy of the insincerity of our politicians and the ill-informed voters.

Most of Bauchi politicians either have no capacity, of course in terms of the ability to understand the exigencies of both politics and governance, or are insincere, in terms of their principles and ideologies as well as in upholding public trust. That is why, when they exhibit their incapacity characterised by insincerity during parties primary elections, the electorate are mostly compelled to choose between the devil and the deep blue sea.

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A mixture of a good dose of incapacity and insincerity remains one of the reasons why most of our politicians are nomads; always on the move in search of greener pastures. Most of them have travelled, at least once, across party border lines, not for God and country, but for devil and self. As a result, Bauchi State has little to show in terms of development of whatever sort.

Since the return to democracy in 1999, the state has earned billions of Naira from federal allocations and internally generated more billions of Naira as revenue but to the chagrin of all, there is virtually nothing to show for it. Many of our politicians were financially in the middle-class category of the economy before joining government, but they come out of it in abundance despite that they are not known to have started any business enterprise even if it is at Bauchi Central Market.

And worst of it, the electorate are always ill-informed of the real motives of the politicians. We, therefore, allow them to control our instincts. And by that, they get the desired results. They win, we lose. But we don’t see it that way. We join them in the euphoria of victory; our victory, their victory.

Mukhtar Jarmajo is a public affairs commentator.